Theatre
The Forest Song
Лісова пісня
Lesya Ukrainka · 1918
Opening lines
Лев
Чого ж ти зупинився— Тут не можна
зайти по рибу.
Why have you stopped? Here one cannot
wade in for fish.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ukrlib.com.ua
Synopsis
On the shore of a lake in the Polesia forest, a young peasant, Lukash, comes to spend the summer and plays the reed flute. Mavka, a forest spirit neither dead nor alive, awakens in spring at the sound and comes out of her tree. An improbable love is born between her and the boy, which leads her out of the world of spirits, towards the house, the vegetable garden and the gestures of the living. Around them stir the creatures of the beliefs of Volhynia, spirits of the waters, the fields and the woods.
Context
Written in 1911 in Kutaisi, Georgia, in a few days, then reworked until October at the cost of a relapse, the play appeared in 1912. Its author never saw it performed: the premiere took place on 22 November 1918 at the Kyiv Drama Theatre. It has given rise to a ballet by Mykhailo Skorulsky, to operas, to a film by Viktor Ivchenko in 1961 and to an animated film in 2023. Henri Abril translated it into French in 1985 under the title La Chanson sylvestre; his version was revived on stage in 2025, at the Préau de Vire, under the title La Chanson de la forêt.
Who it is for
Three acts in rhythmic verse, often unrhymed, with long stage directions about the forest and the seasons. The mavka is a figure from Slavic popular beliefs.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's most famous work, and one of the most performed and most read plays in Ukraine.
Sources for this page 8
The pages consulted to check this page.